HIV/AIDS Services

The Harris County Hospital District has a long history of treating and caring for patients with HIV/AIDS, even before researchers could identify the disease. In the summer of 1981, patients suffering from a variety of infections like Kaposi’s sarcoma, a skin disorder commonly associated with cancer, began showing up at Jefferson Davis Hospital. Baffled by this unknown disease’s deadly results, doctors and nurses saw many of their patients die.

The condition was eventually identified as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome), a disease that attacks the body’s immune system, making it difficult to fight infection. The trigger for the disease is Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). While there is no known cure for HIV/AIDS, the Harris County Hospital District’s expertise has helped thousands of HIV/AIDS patients manage their illness and, much like chronic sufferers of diabetes or heart disease, live long, productive lives.

In 1989, HCHD opened Thomas Street Health Center, the first freestanding facility dedicated to outpatient HIV/AIDS care in the nation. The center is the cornerstone of all HIV/AIDS care available to Harris County residents.

Supported by a network of several health centers and inpatient care at Ben Taub General Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital, HIV/AIDS patients receive the latest medications and treatments available because of the collaboration of top physicians and researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. This collaboration has led to successful initiatives including the Women’s HIV Program, which has more than a 99 percent success rate in helping pregnant HIV-positive women deliver uninfected newborns.